For those who don't follow the intro threads, my roommate and I started three years ago making a video for my agency's annual awards banquet. What we started on a whim has become an expected tradition, and each year we're expected to come up with something new, around 15 minutes long. Previous years we worked with photos taken by ourselves or others, videos from in-car cameras, and video shot on a DV cam (Sony HC20). We had been using Vegas to edit, although probably not using it in the most efficient method.

This year, we've switched to Macs, using FCS, and new cameras (V1U's). We decided to do a little spoof video in addition to the usual photo slideshow. Having no real experience prior to this, we had a learning curve akin to Everest. A couple of things we learned:

1) Hey, that new wireless lavalier mike? Yeah, how about making sure it's turned ON before rolling tape.

2) Those sunglasses, and shiny car bumper, and windows... they tend to reflect the cameraman really well. Hope you like trimming clips.

3) Are you sure the "actors" (read: co-workers) can really act?

4) Bullet hits? Aw, we can composite those in with Motion. Um... have you used Motion yet? No? Isn't there a way to keyframe? How many pages is that manual?

5) You've got the second camera set to the same settings as camera 1, right? Oooh... well... we can correct that in post. (Repeat above, replacing "Motion" with "Color")

6) Do we have any more Tequila in the house? That'll make this look better.

Thankfully, our audience has low expectations. I think we'll play this one for the cheese factor.

So... What were the big learning points on your first production?

The cheese factor is a lifesaver.

I did an edit of a rather large comedy skit, 12 hour turnaround urgent project, narrator had noo experience.... it worked. and well. Because it was intentionally cheesy. :)

C

i was so addicted to the zoom it was ridiculous.
every time something happened, i zoomed.
It was almost like a nervous twitch.

Thankfully that ws a long time ago.

I forgot another one:

Coming from an SLR still camera background, I kept forgetting that you can't crop in Photoshop to fix your framing. (Well, I suppose you can crop in the NLE, but not the same thing). Forgetting about action safe zones, as well.

I'm going to have to tape reminders to the camera like I did the SLR; ie, "Check ISO!!!"

A good three and a half years ago, we had an opportunity to shoot a commercial for a lodge up in Utah. I decided to borrow my friend's XL2, figuring I could handle it, no problems. Little did I know. (What's this 24p/30p/60i switch for?)

We now have the XL2 for ourselves, and eventhough we've used it for a good year now, we still feel we haven't used it's full potential.

--JA
www.madjavaproductions.com